Matakishi's Tea House
A simple little site...
By Jason Miller
Heroic Scale vs. True Scale
What do humans look like? Well at first nearly everyone would say 'I know exactly what humans look like'... and they would be wrong. We as humans vaguely know what we look like.
A young child of 3 knows what his mother looks like but when he draws her she may only be a head with stumpy arms, an odd assortment of fingers, and depending on the age of the child some crude breasts (making it a woman over the lump next to it which is Dad). As humans get older their drawings also mature as they learn more about proportion and scale. A child of 5 knows more than a child of 3, and a child of 10 knows more than that. In fact there are whole university courses on teaching art to children and identifying how their mental image of a human matures- I know because I had to take them lol.
The psychology behind this maturation is based on the human brain learning to recognize common patterns. An object reflects light into the eye(s) and the human brain, in all of its wonder, takes this simple image and makes sense of it- color, size, distance, our brain makes as much sense of it as it can. It is all about patterns. From the instant children open their eyes the brain starts to process the myriad of things in our world- the human shape being one of them. As we learn more about the human shape we change our mental blueprint for what a human looks like.
This blueprint of what we look like (phenotype or 'body shape') is a result of our genetic code- all of mankind is one species but within that one species we all have a different mix of that code- or put another simpler way, some of us are 'driving different' cars but they are all just that- cars. One of us may have large ears- someone else has the code for smaller ears. As a result of years of people living in a certain area, country, continent, people will tend to have shared code- and shared phenotype. Makes sense as the 'breeding' population is limited by geography (that’s how genetic profs talk if you can imagine- no Tim, no date last night- I was limited by geography). The whole racial stereotype of people 'looking the same' comes from this shared code- (but it is still 100% incorrect).
To a North American a person of Asian descent may look the same as another person of Asian descent - even though it is immediately obvious to people from Asia that they look nothing like each other. The problem is that the method the North American is using to identifying a human being's face is 'no good' because after years of looking for certain patterns in a North American face the brain starts to make the image fit into its patterns*. And why not- eventually it is quicker to look for certain key features so our brain takes that short cut. But once you have spent a year in Asia you will undoubtedly have a new code for the human face- one that takes into account the new similarities and differences you are used to in the environment around you.
The variability of genetic code within populations is one of the things that make one face different from another, but THAT in turn may further vary from place to place. Again if you want to know more then you can take the science psychology courses at the university lol.
(*In fact I recently read that even when presented with overwhelming evidence proving they are wrong people are still 95% likely to continue to think they must be right).
So where does that leave us with regards to miniatures?
Heroic Scale 'Zombie chopping SvenWell despite what some people may say, sculpting miniatures is an art form. The artist uses his mental blueprint for what a human looks like to make a miniature. Art forms can vary in style, with some forms preferring a more accurate (mature) pattern of what is human while other forms prefer a different pattern- stylistic license as it were. As consumers people tend to prefer a miniature that more closely conforms to what they consider a human to 'look like'. However this is heavily influenced by what they know about the human body and by what miniatures they are first exposed to. This is why many of my friends still think that their GW figures, sculpted in 'Heroic' style, are what human beings 'really' look like. Some one who read a lot of comic books would see humans as more muscle bound and all the women would be wasp-waisted, big breasted…well, you get the point. They have little or no formal training in 'art' and as a result their mental image of what a person looks like is still within the range of what people would call 'common sense'. And why not?
Most of us could care less that the length of the pelvis can tell you the length of the other bones in the body- ( I know that going around looking at people's crotches won't go over well anyway).
Heroic figure
Thicker limbs- especially the leg/armour
Thicker feet
Smaller gut, larger chest
Larger face on the head
Larger weapons
True Figure
Thin limbs
'Normal' feet
'Proper' sized gut/chest ratio (for me lol)
The face is less prominent
The weapon is closer to a realistic size
Some differences do readily appear to some- some people don't see them- in fact I have been told they could be from the same line they are so similar lol. That’s ok it helps to prove the point –that people can have different ideas of what is human and rather than discern differences they try to force a fit. The fact that I sculpted BOTH figures also means that there will tend to be many similarities because of my own mental blueprint. You can better see the differences between the two style choices with an actual human next to them...
Do not be confused because the figures are the same size-focus on the differences between the three images.
Heroic Scale is a stylistic choice- one that focuses on 'character'- so some parts are made larger in proportion to the rest of the body; the face, the chest, the arms- and usually the large weapons. But the actual physical height of the two minis can still be the same. Every artist must decide how much to alter- how far to take it- and that is a choice of style.
Although essentially a human form, the proportions in the Heroic figure have been 'tweaked' in subtle ways to make the figure look more visually striking. I say 'subtle' because many people can not see them until they are able to notice the differences and 'update' their blueprint.
In contrast 'True Scale' is a stylistic choice that is closer to the human form- which doesn’t make it a 'better' style, it just tries to get closer to a 'real' or true style.
'Perfect' True Scale; True Sven; Heroic Sven; 'Perfect' Heroic
A more 'extreme' Heroic Scale human figure
very much dwarf proportions now
very much dwarf proportions now
The 'problem' occurs when one consumer finds that the miniature he is viewing 'does not look right'- even if it looks 'true'. The most recent example I have seen of people being unaware of the human form is when these future warriors were panned as being 'inhumanly' thin. They are in fact actually VERY close to having human proportions.
Disclaimer- I did not sculpt these fellows: these were actually done by some other fellow employed by DGUSA (need to get his name from David P) – he made one figure then David S of Bronze Age reproduced the figure and modded it AND made a female for DGUSA. The figures are now in the process of being under license to 2 Hour War Games and I do not own any of these rights- I just felt irked that they got slammed for being too thin by some.
In contrast to the miniature industry which has featured Heroic Scale for years, the model industry has always focused on going for True Scale. That is not to say they have been entirely successful as some manufacturers are better than others and in some cases certain figures have been 'recast' as the rights to the figures/mold have been passed around from company to company. However when you put the future warriors next to these 1/48 scale soldiers they don't look too thin at all- in fact they look perfectly reasonable.
The point? Well some like Picasso and some don't. Some like Blink 182 and some don't. The next time you see a sculpt at least you will know why you see what you see.
One scale is no better than the other, and this is not a question of scale but rather style...
